Privacy Policy
Main Site
We will not use 3rd-party services like Google Analytics. We do store information such as your favorites, your watchlist, your user profile and so forth, but this data is tied to your username, not your IP address. Our use of cookies is solely for authentication and the storage of short-term preferences. If you do not log in to the main site, no data is stored about your visit. The hitcounter on the individual submission pages is anonymous as well. Your email address is not sold or given away to third parties. Your email address is used for automated notification emails about new comments, changes in your submission status, etc. We may use your email address to communicate important changes or news, but this email communication will be extremely low-volume - in fact it hasn't happened to date. If we chose to do a regular email newsletter in the future you will be able to opt out. Reviewers and moderators are not able to read other users private messages.
Chat
We log IP addresses and names in the chat. We also log any communication on the chat in order to allow super-moderators to review bans. These logs are kept for no longer than three months. We do not use these logs to actively search for rule violations, unless we have specific reasons (complaints, ban appeals, etc) to do so. Access to logs is restricted to a small number of moderators. You should not write or whisper sensitive information on the chat. Use secure communication channels (encrypted email or encrypted IM) for that. The chat is for casual conversation only.
Miscellaneous
As you can see, different parts of the site have different levels of logging. Part of this is due to technical circumstances, or administrative requirements. The main site uses as little logging as possible. The chat is very log-heavy, mainly due to the fact that moderators have to investigate complaints or ban appeals on a regular basis.
Always remember that we can not influence what data is stored by your ISP. Be aware of this fact if you're accessing SoFurry from within countries where such content is deemed immoral or illegal.
